Planes Crazy: Transformations of Pictorial Space in 1930s Cartoons

À regarder les courts métrages qu’ont produits les studios Disney durant les années 1930, il appert que la façon de penser la représentation de l’espace a beaucoup évolué au cours de cette décennie. À l’époque, les grands studios cherchaient tous à améliorer l’illusion de la troisième dimension dans la composition des dessins. L’intention était peut-être de produire des courts métrages qui, plutôt que de contraster avec les longs métrages aux côtés desquels ils figuraient dans les programmes, fonctionneraient selon des codes visuels similaires. Le présent article s’attarde aux innovations dans la représentation de l’espace ainsi qu’aux usages de nouvelles techniques dans les films des studios Disney et des studios concurrents.It is apparent from viewing the short films produced by the Disney studio in the 1930s that the concepts of pictorial space changed dramatically during the decade. All the major studios experimented with increasing the three-dimensionality of their compositions. The motivation may have been to produce films that complemented, rather than contrasted with, the visual norms of the feature films they accompanied on film programs. This article looks at the spatial innovations and evidence of new techniques found in the films of Disney and competing studios

Direct Feedback Alignment with Sparse Connections for Local Learning

Recent advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) owe their success to training algorithms that use backpropagation and gradient-descent. Backpropagation, while highly effective on von Neumann architectures, becomes inefficient when scaling to large networks. Commonly referred to as the weight transport problem, each neuron's dependence on the weights and errors located deeper in the network require exhaustive data movement which presents a key problem in enhancing the performance and energy-efficiency of machine-learning hardware. In this work, we propose a bio-plausible alternative to backpropagation drawing from advances in feedback alignment algorithms in which the error computation at a single synapse reduces to the product of three scalar values. Using a sparse feedback matrix, we show that a neuron needs only a fraction of the information previously used by the feedback alignment algorithms. Consequently, memory and compute can be partitioned and distributed whichever way produces the most efficient forward pass so long as a single error can be delivered to each neuron. Our results show orders of magnitude improvement in data movement and $2\times$ improvement in multiply-and-accumulate operations over backpropagation. Like previous work, we observe that any variant of feedback alignment suffers significant losses in classification accuracy on deep convolutional neural networks. By transferring trained convolutional layers and training the fully connected layers using direct feedback alignment, we demonstrate that direct feedback alignment can obtain results competitive with backpropagation. Furthermore, we observe that using an extremely sparse feedback matrix, rather than a dense one, results in a small accuracy drop while yielding hardware advantages. All the code and results are available under https://github.com/bcrafton/ssdfa.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Somatotopy and movement representation sites following cortical stroke.

Stroke has been associated with many changes in motor system function, but there has been limited study of changes in somatotopic organization. This was examined in a group of patients with cortical stroke affecting primary sensorimotor cortex. In 17 patients with good outcome after cortical stroke involving precentral and/or postcentral gyri, plus 14 controls, four functional MRI evaluations of brain activity were obtained: finger, shoulder, and face motor tasks plus a sensory task, passive finger motion. For each, coordinates for contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex activation site were determined, as was a measure of inter-hemispheric balance. The normal motor somatotopy measured in controls was largely preserved after stroke. The main difference found between controls and patients was that the face was lateral to finger motor activation in all controls, but face was centered medial to finger in 43% of patients. Among patients, smaller infarct volume was associated with more ventral, and larger infarct with more dorsal, contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex activation. On the other hand, better behavioral outcome was associated with a more posterior, and poorer outcome with more anterior, activation. Larger infarct and poorer behavioral outcome were each associated with a change in inter-hemispheric balance towards the non-stroke hemisphere. Shifts in contralateral movement representation site did not correlate with changes in inter-hemispheric balance. Motor somatotopy is generally preserved after injury to primary sensorimotor cortex. Greater injury and larger behavioral deficits are associated with distinct effects on movement representation sites. Changes in motor organization within and between hemispheres arise independently after stroke

Application of Fast Pressure Sensitive Paint in Hypervelocity Flow

The development of fast responding pressure sensitive paints for measurements in high-enthalpy, hypersonic flows is reported. Data are obtained for at plate boundary layers in an impulse facility with typical test gas times on the order of hundreds of microseconds. The fast pressure sensitive paint is found to have the required response time and sufficient signal level to visualize vortical boundary layer structures in a Mach 5.12 freestream. The flow behind protuberance strips with different geometries is evaluated with measurements of the vortex frequency and diameter, as well as breakdown distance. Comparisons with static pressure measurements made using pressure taps show differences of up to a factor of three, and calibration sources as well as an alternative lifetime measurement method remain to be investigated

Ornamental marine species culture in the coral triangle: seahorse demonstration project in the Spermonde Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Ornamental marine species ('OMS') provide valuable income for developing nations in the Indo-Pacific Coral Triangle, from which most of the specimens are exported. OMS culture can help diversify livelihoods in the region, in support of management and conservation efforts to reduce destructive fishing and collection practices that threaten coral reef and seagrass ecosystems. Adoption of OMS culture depends on demonstrating its success as a livelihood, yet few studies of OMS culture exist in the region. We present a case study of a land-based culture project for an endangered seahorse (Hippocampus barbouri) in the Spermonde Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia. The business model demonstrated that culturing can increase family income by seven times. A Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis indicated good collaboration among diverse stakeholders and opportunities for culturing non-endangered species and for offshoot projects, but complicated permitting was an issue as were threats of market flooding and production declines. The OMS international market is strong, Indonesian exporters expressed great interest in cultured product, and Indonesia is the largest exporting country for H. barbouri. Yet, a comparison of Indonesia ornamental marine fish exports to fish abundance in a single local market indicated that OMS culture cannot replace fishing livelihoods. Nevertheless, seahorse and other OMS culture can play a role in management and conservation by supplementing and diversifying the fishing and collecting livelihoods in the developing nations that provide the majority of the global OMS

Activity in the peri-infarct rim in relation to recovery from stroke.

Background and purposeIn the rim of tissue surrounding a cortical infarct, animal studies have described an increase in a number of growth-related processes that likely contribute to behavioral recovery. The current study hypothesized that in patients with good outcome after stroke, brain activation in peri-infarct tissue would be greater than normal.MethodsIn 15 patients with good recovery chronically after ischemic cortical stroke, activation within peri-infarct brain tissue was directly compared with activation within the same brain tissue of 13 control subjects.ResultsAlthough most patients did show activation within peri-infarct tissues, their activation compared with controls was reduced rather than increased. Evaluation of the T2*-weighted images underlying functional MRI mapping disclosed a significant gradient of increased T2* signal in peri-infarct tissues, likely attributable to tissue changes such as gliosis.ConclusionsAmong well-recovered stroke patients, cortical activation is present in the area surrounding a cortical infarct but is smaller than normal. A baseline derangement of the T2*-weighted signal underlying functional MRI (fMRI) is also present in this area, which might influence interpretation of fMRI findings. The relationship between increased tissue T2* signal and fMRI activation is not known and requires further study

Using Pressure Sensitive Paint to Measure Aerodynamic Forces on a Rotor Blade in Hover

This report will present details of a Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) system for measuring global surface pressures on rotorcraft blades in hover at the Rotor Test Cell located in the 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel complex at the NASA Langley Research Center. This work builds upon previous entries and focused on collecting measurements from the upper and lower surface simultaneously. From these results, normal force (F (sub z)) values can be obtained. To date, this is the first time that the Pressure Sensitive Paint technique has been used for these types of measurements on rotor blades. In addition, several areas of improvement have been identified and are currently being developed for future testing

Leaders All: Teacher-Led Participatory Action Research At The Middle School Level

Classroom teachers who wish to have voice in decisions that influence their daily practice often confront barriers, causing some to leave the classroom altogether to become school administrators. There is little participatory action research conducted by classroom-based educators on teachers’ perceptions of transcending the organizational, political, and cultural barriers to their own leadership. The dearth of such studies exemplifies an acute example of the marginalization experienced by many classroom teachers. By examining the perceptions of teachers working in a distributed leadership practice, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how teachers become agents of transformation without leaving their positions in the classroom. The study also assesses the impact of participating in a distributed leadership model on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and the democratization of a school community. Three research questions framed the study: how do teachers view themselves as change agents; to what extent does the professional learning community (PLC) model of distributed leadership provide them with agency and voice; and how do teachers experience this process of shared leadership? The study utilized grounded theory qualitative design to generate a theory “grounded” in participant language. Interviews, surveys, PLC artifacts, researcher analytical memoranda, and existing school documents formed the data corpus. Findings suggest that a model of distributed leadership can provide a mechanism for classroom teachers to build individual and collective agency and voice without leaving their positions as classroom teachers for positions in administration. A process of disruptive creation was observed as teachers moved from navigating demands and obstacles in relative isolation to more fully participating in school decision-making by disrupting the status quo in the workplace. Disruptive creation is an action process that transforms the status quo when community members successfully confront obstacles to agency and voice. This process created a sense of inclusion, which led to increased feelings of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and increased democratization of the workplace

Edna Williams

The career of Edna Williams, an unrecognized pioneer in the field of international film distribution, demonstrates not only the importance, but also the pervasiveness, of many individuals who worked behind the scenes performing the all-important work of connecting moving picture producers and their audiences. One searches film history texts in vain, however, for any mention of Williams, despite having been dubbed in 1921 by Photoplay (albeit incorrectly) “The Film’s First Woman Executive” (94). In 1918, at least one trade journal, Exhibitors Herald, singled out Williams as a sign that distribution might be an emerging domain suitable for women